The believer is in Christ as Noah was enclosed within the ark, with the heavens darkening above him, and the waters heaving below him, yet not a drop of the flood penetrating his vessel, not a blast of the storm disturbing the serenity of his spirit.

The believer is in Christ as Jacob was in the garment of the elder brother when Isaac kissed and blessed him. He is in Christ as the poor homicide was within the city of refuge when pursued by the avenger of blood, but who could not overtake and slay him.

- Octavius Winslow, 1857

There are times in life when fog is all you see in the five day forecast. Shining a light only seems to worsen the problem as the small rays of light are magnified by every molecule of water.

You wait… dream of clearer days… and wonder how you ever took the sun so for granted before.

Days of overcast emotions cause our thoughts to lose clarity. The days of crisp processing, big dreams and bigger expectations are a thing of the past. In these times, all we can do is pray that the Lord will return our heart to a place of zealous accomplishment for His glory.

Last night I had a conversation with a dear friend who lost his father just last week. He is living in a thick fog brought on by his loss. I didn’t know what to say, except that ‘this was all part of a process and don’t worry – the sun will shine again.’

I’ll admit, I feel my way through life more than I think my way through life. My emotions are very powerful. I’ve come to accept that God wired me this way. However, finding ways to withstand the tsunami of catastrophic emotions has been very important to my daily life. Here are things I do when depressing thoughts set in or I am caught in a fog of feelings:

1. Write. By journaling things on paper, I see my mixed up thoughts in black and white. It is a bit unexplainable, but somehow writing brings feelings of clarity that few other exercises can.

2. Pray what I write. I spend time praying my written thoughts to God. By doing this, I am able to stay more focused in what I pray and I can hear God’s thoughts in return more clearly because I wrote my thoughts down and got them out of the way.

3. Call a mentor. God has given me several men that I look up too. I often call them and talk things through. Sometimes, just the talking helps. But often their words are the tangible wisdom of God given to me.

4. Read the Psalms. God’s Word brings clarity, but commiserating with David, Asaph or the other Psalmist has a way of bringing both comfort and clarity.

5. Eat and Sleep right. When I am messed up emotionally, it is important that I eat well to keep my blood sugar and other balances in line. I also must sleep; not sleep to avoid the pain, but sleep to rest and then awake to still deal with the emotions.

If you find yourself twisted up like a bowl of spaghetti noodles and not sure how to get untangled, seek God. Remember what Psalm 118:8 says – “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in people.” (NLT)

You are not alone. This is part of the process. The Sun will shine again.

One of the things I joke with my mom about is how old she is. In reality she is actually pretty young, yet I’ll tease her about being around to help Christopher Columbus build his ship or Dating George Washington in her teen years. Obviously she is not that old but she is now to the point that her kids are grown and almost all out of the house. And all joking aside, at this point in her life, I want her to be proud of the kid she’s raised in me.

In the 22^nd verse of Proverbs 23 the Bible states, “Do not despise your mother when she is old.” This passage carries the idea of having love, respect and even honor for your mom, but focuses on not willfully disrespecting her. The Word “Despise” is translated “Buz” in the Hebrew language and it is used six times in the book of proverbs. It means to “To hold contempt, to belittle, or to ridicule.”

It can be easy for us to go beyond joking and actually put down or disrespect our mothers with our words. We get older as they get older and we start to think we are suddenly smarter than them. But how wrong it is for us to willfully loose all respect or reverence for them just because we think we’re right or have one up on them.

Proverbs 23 goes on to say, “Let the one who bore you rejoice.” This mother’s day lets all strive to love our mom’s by not despising them with our words or our lives. Wouldn’t it be great if on Sunday your mom to praise God because of the life she was able to create in you?

I am lucky – or should I say “Blessed” – because I have the world’s best administrative assistant working with me. She does an amazing job at helping me steward the ministry of the church well, and in turn, shepherding the flock God has entrusted to us.

Over the last 13 years in ministry, I’ve had 7 administrative assistants. They have all been wonderful. Each one has had their unique set of gift and in turn sharpened my leadership (whether they knew it or not). Do to a few moves for me, and the somewhat transient nature of that position, I have not been able to work with all of them as long as I would have hoped. However, God has now matched me up Jenna who is the perfect fit a great blessing to my daily ministry.

I’ve learned that there are several things I need to do to be a good teammate to my administrative assistants:

First, I must create an maintain an environment of motivation and purpose. Administrative tasks are not always “fun” tasks. Therefore, I must ensure that the purpose behind our system, spreadsheets and daily grind is made clear. She or he will not want to come to work if all they are doing is mundane tasks without understanding the greater goals.

Second, I strive to NEVER speak condescending – ever. She may be supporting me and my position, but she is not my slave. It is important to treat your administrative assistant with great respect. Don’t forget the two most important words your mom taught you – “please” and “thank you”.

Third, clarify expectations. No one likes to work in a fog. Make sure that you are clear with the expectations you have when handing something off. Cover the “What, How, Where and When” details thoroughly. Make sure that you invite feedback and questions. Always end with, “Does that make sense?” or “Can I explain anything further?”

My wife was an Administrative Assistant for 16 years. She supported some big-wigs at GI, Motorola and Google. She helped me understand the importance of these three things long ago, and I’ve seen the pay-off. Be respectful and by doing so you both will be more productive.

Transformed Lives.

But as the Discipleship Pastor, my role demands that I accurately define what it means for a life to be transformed by Christ. Our values clarify why this type of change is important, but we had never really defined what it looks like; I thought we still needed to have a somewhat measurable idea of what a life looks like that has been changed by Christ completely.

A transformed life simply looks like Christ-likeness.

I took months (literally) to wrestle with scripture and read some of the best thoughts behind discipleship. In the end, I found that the fruit of a transformed life came down to eight main measurable definitions, simply put as the following:

I then took those statements and further defined them. These definitions yield greater clarity as to what we must be focused on as a church staff:

• Biblical Understanding: To see an ever increasing number of people engaging in passionate discovery of God’s Truth for their life with the Bible as their authority
• Worship Environments: To develop and sustain excellent opportunities for Christ-centered worship that is accessible to all ages and genders
• Authentic Community: Provide opportunities for those who attend MHC to be a part of a small group or medium groups, as well as foster life-stage specific ongoing intentional mentoring
• Gospel-Living Opportunities: To see a growing number of maturing believers engaging their gifts, strengths and passion to serve at MHC, locally and globally and give without reservation.
• Continuous Prayer: To see people believe deeply in the power of prayer by them asking for it and engaging in it on a consistent basis
• Crisis, Care and Counseling: Provide authentic and consistent pastoral care for preventive and reactive situations in people’s lives

Let me be Honest

Working day-in-and-day-out to see lives transformed is hard work. But the load is not mind to bear. Christ promised that His yoke would be light. This doesn’t mean the the work is easy or the intensity is low, but rather that the weight of the responsibility is not mine to shoulder. He does the true work, I just steward my life to be a conduit of His power poured into the lives of others.

A commercial was playing on the radio as I turned the corner into my office parking lot. I was rather tuned out until the voice in the 30-second spot said, “There is nothing better to have on these fields than the farmer’s footprint.”

The commercial was about organic vegetables, tenderly cared for and grown to supply our local Safeway supermarket. However, the statement was as just as true about life as it was about vegetables. God is our creator and our sustainer. He provides for our every need in order to grow us in the way He desires for us to be.

The care of our farmer – God Himself – is evident if we will take the time to observe it. His footprints around the garden of my life prove that He is at work.Though at times I may hate the fertilizer of truth or the pruning of repentance, there are great purposes behind His every move.

There is nothing better than His footprints upon the soil of my soul, for it means that He is close and tending to me. The pressure of His presence upon me leaves the sweetest of all impressions.

We forget how precious you are at times, and in doing so, we forget how precious life is.

Yet, in-spite of our shallow view of you, God, you patiently wait for us to remember the depth of your goodness.

We complain over the struggles of life, all the while forgetting the privilege we have to live.

Yet, God, you patiently wait for us to remember that you alone give hope and are hope.

Some mornings we don’t want to get out of bed…

… to get off to work…
…get the kids out the door…
…or to meet the millions of demands in the world we’ve created.

Yet, while we scurry around like preoccupied toddlers, you, God, patiently wait for us to remember your joy.

Father, remind us that you are

… hope.
… goodness.
… joy.
… and Life.

Thank you from not leaving us to meander in our own meaningless maze, but to have the Cross of Jesus Christ as a symbol of freedom and life.

I pray all this in the name of the one who came so we could have life to the fullest,Our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

“Shame is a feeling deep within our being that makes us want to hide,” wrote psychologist Jane Middelton-Moz. “We feel suddenly overwhelmed and self-conscious. The feeling of shame is of being exposed, visible, and examined by a critical other. It is the sense that the ‘examination’ has found the self to be imperfect and unworthy in every way. We hang our heads, stoop our shoulders, and curve inward as if trying to make ourselves invisible.”

This is a tough subject for that very reason—we are ashamed of our shame. Are you grimacing? Even writing about it makes me cringe. Because it feels painful, we’d prefer to avoid it. But reality is, you and I both are controlled to some degree by a sense of shame. Spiritual and emotional wholeness can only happen when we face or shame head-on properly and thoroughly.

The problem comes when we feel shame because of wrongdoing or wrong feelings—perpetual sin we can’t seem to beat—so we’re not honest with God. We stay on the surface because of the skeletons in the closet we’re hoping He won’t find.

This is where our spiritual schizophrenia kicks in: we know intellectually God is already aware of our ill-intentions and misdeeds, but we still want to keep them hidden from Him. The longer we remain in our sin, the stronger our inclination to run and hide from God. Staying in a shameful place only drives a wedge deeper between us and Him. The wedge is only there because we put it there; He never leaves us or forsakes us.

Be free in Christ.